Online conservative media platforms may see the return of advertising revenue, thanks to a settlement the Trump administration says it reached with three ad agencies this week. The Federal Trade Commission’s settlement, announced Wednesday, continues the Trump administration’s war on free enterprise.
The Federal Trade Commission pressured three advertising firms into settlements that will likely result in more ad spending on conservative media platforms.
The FTC and eight US states filed a lawsuit against ad firms Dentsu, Publicis, and WPP yesterday, and simultaneously announced settlements with all three companies. The complaint alleges a conspiracy of ‘various interested parties to demonetize disfavored conservative news and opinion sites by denying them digital advertising revenue.’ The FTC filed suit in US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which happens to be Elon Musk’s preferred judicial venue.
The FTC announcement says the ad firms have agreed to abandon their brand safety agreements and appoint a monitor to ensure compliance. How exactly that compliance will be measured is an open question.
What’s at issue is conservatives’ refusal to allow businesses to spend money as they see fit, as well as MAGA’s public crusade against people and organizations that try to thwart mis- and disinformation. It’s all in furtherance of an Orbán-esque scenario, as media journalist Paul Farhi noted for MS NOW. “Orbán stacked his country’s media regulatory agencies with loyalists and approved new powers to punish and even shutter outlets,” Farhi wrote, and Trump’s FTC is now doing the same.
Back in 2024, hard-right lawmakers such as Jim Jordan alleged that, by signing brand safety agreements to avoid placing ads alongside content deemed harmful or misleading, several advertising firms and their clients had engaged in illegal boycotts that targeted conservatives and violated antitrust laws.
Jordan suggested, for example, that Coca-Cola and a now-defunct advisory group known as GARM were part of some corporate conspiracy to deny ad revenue to Trump-friendly podcaster Joe Rogan.
Elon Musk, who unsuccessfully sued companies that chose not to advertise on his hate speech–filled social platform X, sued GARM out of existence back in 2024.
As Ars Technica notes, “A business can still avoid advertising on certain platforms if these third parties [such as GARM] are not involved, as the settlements let each ad company make agreements with each client about how to direct that client’s advertising spending.” The organizations didn’t admit to the allegations as part of the settlement, which is particularly important as all sorts of corporate interests acquiesce to Trump and his allies’ authoritarian demands.
Under MAGA logic, it’s okay for the government to stop barring federal contractors from operating segregated facilities and allow businesses to turn away customers based on their gender or sexual orientation. But if independent companies decide not to spend money on platforms they consider to be overrun with hate speech, misinformation or other harmful content, that’s unacceptably biased. The hypocrisy is noteworthy.
The post A new FTC settlement could send ad revenue back to conservative sites appeared first on MS NOW.
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